


In Which Sokka Has Ideas and Zuko Remains Confused

by Lisa_Telramor



Series: Avatar-Harry Potter works [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Awkward Zuko, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Friendship, Gen, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 05:46:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6361807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisa_Telramor/pseuds/Lisa_Telramor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to "In Which Zuko Can't Understand His Life"</p><p>Life continues to be baffling and unfair for Zuko. Sokka thinks he might want to change that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which Sokka Has Ideas and Zuko Remains Confused

**Author's Note:**

> So, ZukkaFireTrash and Crowley_stole_my_pie. You guys said sequel and surprise surprise, idea bunnies bit for a few scenes. I hope this is enjoyable. :) 
> 
> Like the last fic, this isn't something that contains much in the way of plot, just a couple interactions that wanted to be written. For new readers, this is a Harry Potter fusion with Avatar the Last AIrbender characters. It should be readable even if you haven't read the first fic.
> 
> (I can't always do sequels as often the idea isn't there or there's no inspiration to drive it, so no promises on this happening if other fics get similar comments. But I do enjoy hearing if people enjoyed something enough to want more, and every once in a while it happens that a fic will get a sequel because a comment has spun my brain off on what if scenarios.)

The soft sounds of rustling feathers and hoots from the owlry usually were soothing—and outweighed the astringent scents of owl droppings—but today they didn’t seem to be enough. Zuko paced the owlry floor with mounting irritation.

“Oh Zuzu, if you only had more ambition, you’d still be Father’s heir,” Zuko mocked, adopting Azula’s sing-song voice of manipulation. “What does that even mean? Do they think I’m not trying?” He growled low in his throat. “All I’ve done since I got to Hogwarts has _been_ trying. Not everyone can be _Azula_.” He kicked to corner of a wall, startling a half dozen owls into irritated shrieking and bruising his toes. “ _Dammit!”_

“Wow, what did that wall ever do to you?” a voice asked.

Zuko flinched, whirling around to see…Sokka. Thankfully alone and not with his sister or her friends because then Zuko might have to jump out the owlry window to escape his embarrassment.

“You know,” Sokka said, “being Gryffindor doesn’t mean you lack ambition. I mean look at Katara, she’s aiming to be the best dueler _and_ healer of our generation.”

“Tell that to my family,” Zuko grumbled. His shoulders slumped. “If I’d just ended up in Slytherin, things would have been so much easier.”

“Yeah, kinda doubt that.” Sokka waved a hand. “No offense but your family’s kind of crazy.”

Zuko shrugged. A couple years ago he’d probably have gotten angry, but there didn’t really seem to be much to argue with these days. “How about you? Most of your family has been in Gryffindor.”

“Me?” Sokka grinned. “No one cared. I mean, Dad jokes about it from time to time, but he was Ravenclaw, so it wasn’t a big deal.”

“You’re brave enough to be Gryffindor,” Zuko said, thinking about all the messes Sokka’d run straight into over the years. “Or smart enough to be Ravenclaw.”

“Pssh. Hard working and loyal,” Sokka said aiming his thumb at his chest. “The only reason I end up in so many fights is because at least half the time my sister’s in the middle of them. Besides, Houses are guidelines. It doesn’t mean you don’t have other traits. Katara has ambition and Aang is loyal, and Toph is brave. You’re hard working and loyal too, you’re just more likely to run toward danger first and think about it second.”

Zuko shrugged again. If he was that hardworking, he’d have better grades and be able to cast spells better and not mess up so often. “What are you up here for anyway?”

“Sending a letter, duh,” Sokka said rolling his eyes. He pulled out a package with a letter attached. “It’s Gran Gran’s birthday.” He opened it up to show off a misshapen thing that looked like it was supposed to be a flower or some sort. “I transfigured her an ice lily since they’re her favorite.”

“Sokka…” Was there a diplomatic way of putting it? “You should leave transfiguration to your sister.” Sokka was good at potions, flying, and charms work, but his transfiguration skills were infamous.

Sokka scowled. “C’mon, it totally looks like an ice lily!”

“Sure. If the ice lily melted and then got petrified.”

“I’d like to see you do better!”

Taking out his wand, Zuko scooped up a rock that had somehow gotten on the owlry floor. Transfiguration, unlike charms or dueling spells or all the defense against the dark arts things that weren’t hands on, was simple. In moments a living ice lily was cold in his hand. “How’s that?” Zuko asked feeling almost smug for once.

Sokka took it and turned it over in his hands. “Okay, so you’re good at transfigurations,” he grumbled. “Almost as good as Katara,” he said in what was probably supposed to be an inaudible undertone. “But Gran Gran will love my ice lily anyway,” he said louder, cradling the lump to his chest.

“I’m sure she will.” _If she could figure out what it was_ , Zuko thought.

“So…”Sokka held up Zuko’s lily. “Can I send this along too?”

“So long as your grandmother doesn’t mind getting a flower from the guy who keeps getting her granddaughter detentions.” Zuko said.

Sokka blinked and tilted his head. “Was…that supposed to be a joke?”

Actually, Zuko had meant that seriously, but you know what? Sure. Sure it was a joke. He stood back as Sokka rewrapped the gift after placing a preservation charm on Zuko’s lily. His family’s big eagle owl swooped down when he held the package up, affectionately tugging at Sokka’s hair. Zuko liked owls. Or at least he liked most of them. He didn’t like Azula’s owl, Ashura, but Ashura liked to bite and chase Zuko’s owl when it thought no one was watching. Yato wasn’t at the owlry at the moment, off delivering a letter to Uncle.

“There,” Sokka said once the package was secured. “Gran Gran’s awesome birthday surprise complete!” He dusted off his hands looking pleased with himself. “Now that that’s taken care of, are you going to stop hiding in the owlry?”

“I’m not hiding!” It was just peaceful up here. And people rarely came there, or if they did, they mailed a letter and left.

“Uh huh. And that’s why you’ve spent most of the last couple weeks in the library, using secret passages, and getting meals from the kitchens.”

“How do you even know that?”

“Aang, Toph, Katara noticed you weren’t at meals, and hello? Hufflepuff dorm is near the kitchens.” Sokka elbowed Zuko in the ribs. “Someone’s starting to look antisocial.”

“Someone’s trying not to get hexed,” Zuko grumbled, “or get another detention. Or did you rethink that pumpkin juice threat?”

“Eh, just don’t fight my sister and it’s all good.”

Was it worth pointing out that Katara was the one that started 90% of their arguments? Probably not. Zuko had the more obvious temper and had the unfortunate habit of being goaded into fights.

He still wasn’t sure what to make of Sokka’s occasional conversation attempts.

“Wanna join the NEWTS study group in the library? Suki started it and there’s people from all Houses,” Sokka offered leading the way out of the owlry.

Sit with a bunch of virtual strangers he hadn’t managed to make friends with in the last six years as everyone muddled through the stress of upcoming NEWTS or study on his own? Yeah, that was a real hard decision. “I’m fine,” Zuko said, brushing past Sokka to take the stairs faster. He’d just find an empty classroom to practice in like usual.

“Well, offer’s open if you ever want to!” Sokka called after him.

It would be a lot easier if Sokka would choose a category and stick with it because Zuko wasn’t going to let his guard down and get spiked pumpkin juice the first time he managed to mess things up again.

***

Sokka chewed on a sandwich—roast beef because beef was the best meat ever—as his friends squabbled and grabbed food from their picnic basket like usual. If the weather was nice, they ate outside at least a couple times a week. It was fun, comradery, and he’d been thinking… “Hey I think we should invite Zuko to eat with us sometime.”

Silence, except for Teo who cackled as he finally managed to get a handful of grass down the back of The Duke’s robes.

Katara recovered first, swallowing her mouthful of egg salad (brought for Aang because he was weird and wouldn’t touch meat with a levitation spell half a Quidditch pitch away). “Are you serious?” she sputtered. “He set me on fire once!”

“Well, he’s kind of lonely, you know?” Lately he never seemed to talk to anyone, not even Mai or that weird girl, Jun, who seemed to tolerate him. “And he’s not that bad.” Probably. Half the things he did were in the moment and because he didn’t think, and the other half weren’t intentional. “Besides Toph likes him.”

“Sparky’s cool. He just gets tangled up in his head space and forgets to relax,” Toph said. She stole the last apple slice from Haru’s plate, grinning around it as he protested.

“See?” Sokka said, spreading his arms. “Toph agrees.”

“Yeah, we should do that.” Aang said. He’d somehow managed to get all the best fruits and vegetables on his plate and defended them from any grabby hands. “He’s not so bad. He helped me out when professor Zhao was on the warpath.”

“He almost killed you once, Aang!” Katara looked around the circle of people for support, getting a nod from Haru and ignored by Teo and The Duke. Suki shrugged.

“That was an accident!” Aang said. “We all know how he is when he tries to use hexes.”

There was a collective wince. Most of the time the spells rebounded on Zuko if they failed, but more than once there’d been some…interesting side effects where the spells went completely awry. They’d all ended up caught in the crossfire at least once before. Sokka blamed that on Katara’s insistence of fighting Zuko at the drop of a hat.

“Hey, why do you call him Sparky anyway?” Sokka asked turning to Toph. Toph only gave nicknames to people she liked, but ‘Sparky’ seemed weirdly cute for a guy that had a dragon’s temper half the time.

“Isn’t it obvious? I mean c’mon, the guy is weirdly good at getting things to blow up. Like the time he set Sugar Queen on fire.” Toph lifted her hands, bunching her fingers together before spreading them apart with a _fwoosh_ sound. “Sparky.”

“Huh, good point.”

Katara glared at them both. “Why are you suddenly so pro Zuko? You’re the one who bleached all his robes pink and charmed them so they couldn’t be changed back for almost a month.”

Toph laughed. “Wow, Snoozles, that was you? I thought that was Mai getting back for him dumping her last year.”

Sokka blushed. “He punched Katara!” Granted he’d felt kind of bad about it later because Zuko’d gotten a lot of shit about it from his sister and her friends. And some of Gryffindor. And Slytherin. Damn, did the guy even have any friends besides Toph?

“Yeah, after Katara insulted his family,” Toph muttered.

“Well they _are_ power hungry wannabe Dark Lords,” Katara defended.

“She was kind of right. I mean, Azula.” Sokka shrugged.

“Well yeah, but they’re still his family.”

“…so,” Aang cut in, looking between Sokka and Katara. “Zuko joining us for lunch?”

Katara sighed. “Fine. But I’ll hex him if he does anything funny.”

“Awesome!” Sokka grinned and ate another bite of his sandwich. “Y’know, I might not be able to get him to even agree to come. He’s been avoiding Katara because I threatened him with babbling brew.”

Toph snorted. “Haha, Snoozles you’re kind of awful.” She set aside the remnants of her meal and stretched, bare feet digging in between the grass to reach the dirt beneath. Her arms crossed behind her head cockily. “Eh, don’t worry about Sparky. I’ll get him to come.”

“Don’t scare him too bad,” Sokka said.

Toph laughed.

Ah well, it was Toph’s problem now. Sokka’d just figure out a way to keep Katara from trying to duel Zuko if they did get him to eat with them.

***

In retrospect, Toph thought, she probably shouldn’t have surprised Zuko with magic. He was used to her popping up at random, but most people who pointed a wand at him didn’t have something as kind as a cheering charm in mind. “You BURNED my FEET,” she whimpered. She needed her feet. She couldn’t _see_ right without her feet. The magic didn’t work right with hands or elbows the way it did with her toes and heels.

“Oh Agni.” Zuko sounded horrified. If Toph were in a bit less pain she’d punch him for the self-blaming spiral she could hear starting already. “I am so sorry. I thought you were Azula. Shit.”

“OW! Don’t touch them!” Toph batted his hands away from her feet.  You didn’t touch burns! Didn’t the guy who had a curse burn on his face know that sort of thing?

“Sorry! Sorry! Shit. What should I…?” She could feel him breathing on her and that was kind of creepy because she couldn’t figure out where he was exactly. Toph put a hand out and it landed splayed across Zuko’s face with her thumb almost jamming up his nose. She pushed and he scooted back so he wasn’t crowding her.

“Either make with the healing or get me to the damn Hospital wing!” Was he a wizard or wasn’t he? Ow. Ow ow ow owww…

“Shit. Sorry. I really didn’t mean…”

“Sparky,” she growled. “Fine, apology accepted, just…do something to fix it!”

“Ok. Ok, just…”

Toph yelped as arms scooped her off the ground. Her face smushed into Zuko’s shoulder as she flailed. “Don’t carry me the whole way!”

“Do you have any other ideas?” he asked sounding more like his grumpy self rather than ready to throw himself at some sort of expected wrath.

Toph squirmed to get comfortable, her arms coming up to grip around his neck and shoulders. The floor felt a long, dark, empty way away. It wasn’t quite as bad as the one and only time she flew on a broom. She wasn’t scared. Zuko might have burned her feet but he wasn’t going to _drop_ her or something… hopefully.

“…this is so embarrassing,” she muttered into his shoulder.

“Sorry,” he apologized again, his voice gruff.

“Stop apologizing,” Toph grunted. “I shouldn’t have snuck up on you considering how often Azula’s been doing surprise attacks lately.” Zuko swayed alarmingly as he climbed up a set of stairs. Toph swallowed and searched for a distraction. “There a reason for that?”

“She’s the heir now, so there’s no backlash if I get injured or anything anymore…” Zuko said shortly.

And oh, shit, no wonder he was so jumpy. They’d barely cared about him before. Actually it was surprising he hadn’t been disowned except Toph had the impression that they wanted him around just to keep crushing false hopes. “…don’t get mad at me, but I kind of hate your family.” She bit her lip as Zuko took a turn faster than was comfortable. “Well,” she amended, “not your uncle. You’re uncle’s cool.”

Zuko didn’t answer and she wished she could see his face. His heartbeat against her side was steady but fast, and his breathing was a bit ragged, but that could be because he was carrying her around. If she could just stick her feet against the stone floors… The blisters on her soles throbbed.

One of the arms supporting her shifted to open a door. Toph tilted her head as voices inside stopped talking and turned in the approximate direction of one she’d recognized, pasting a grin on her face. “Hey Teo! What did you break this time?”

“Who said I broke anything?” he shot back. She couldn’t tell what people thought about seeing her in Zuko’s arms, but at least Teo would be predictably Teo.

“If you didn’t break something, you blew something up. Gimme the scoop so I can pay attention to how Katara reacts when you tell the story later.” Zuko had stopped moving. She wondered what sort of expression he had now, watching her act like nothing was wrong.

“Oh, y’know, high velocity tests, experimental charms—” Teo cut off and the wheels on his wheelchair squeaked.

“Suicidally building a ramp off the astronomy tower,” Yugoda cut in sounding exasperated.

“Hey, the levitation charms on my wheelchair are way better than they were a year ago. How am I going to test if I can make a flying wheelchair if I don’t try flying?”

“You could start on the ground, like every student who has ever used a broom,” Yugoda said.

“I only broke my arm this time,” Teo said, his voice clearly directed toward Toph in answer to her earlier question. “I flew fine, but the brakes need some work.”

“Sweet.”

“Um…” Zuko shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. “There was an accident…”

Yugoda sighed. “Of course there was. Bring her over here. Alright, Miss Beifong, what happened this time?”

“Just some burns,” Toph said with her best nonchalant shrug like her feet weren’t blistering agony. Zuko set her carefully onto one of the beds and she gripped the cool sheets as he hovered nearby, a warm presence a short distance away.

“Mm hmm, and how did you get these burns?” There was a clink of jars and bottles somewhere in the blank expanse to her right. “Do I need to talk to your head of house about unsanctioned dueling again?”

Toph shrugged. You come in with a broken nose a few times or a split lip and bruised ribs and suddenly there’s all this concern about a couple of fights. Officially, no one knew about the underground dueling students ran. Really it was one of the biggest open secrets and people made way too big of a deal about it. “Nah, just an accident this time.” Soft hands caught her ankle and Toph stifled a flinch as Yugoda turned her leg to examine the extent of the damage. “Surprised someone doing spell practice.”

“Well, thankfully it’s nothing a bit of burn salve won’t fix up in a few hours.” Yugoda opened a jar of something pungent and bitter. Toph wrinkled her nose against the scent. The first touch of salve against the sole of her foot had her relaxing with relief as the throb of pain abruptly numbed. She held still as Yugoda moved to her other foot. She could hear Zuko still doing a guilty shuffle next to her and she punched his direction, catching him on the hip.

“Relax. It was an accident.” And it’d be fine in a bit. Now if it took a long time to heal? She’d be pissed. Still, it was stupid for him to beat himself up over it.

“That makes it even worse,” Zuko mumbled, but he stopped shifting around.

“We’ll be both be more careful next time. I’m not gonna hold a grudge against a friend.”

“Right. Friends.” He sounded happy and Toph wondered what sort of expression he was making this time. Maybe Sokka was right about getting him to come to group lunches though. If just being called a friend made him happy he clearly needed to get out and interact with people more.

Toph smirked as she thought of something and leaned back to look in his approximate direction. “But if you want to make it up to me…”

“What?” Wariness clashed with sincerity.

“Join me for lunch sometime.”

“That’s it?”

“Yup.” She grinned and knew he was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“…With Slytherin?”

She scoffed and waved a hand at him. “Hell no, I’m not crazy.” Gryffindor among the Slytherins? She’d just said he was a friend, she wouldn’t throw him into a snake pit. Especially not with his psycho sister lurking in the wings. “I meet up with Sokka and Aang and the guys a couple times a week.”

“Oh… And…no one would mind?”

“Hey, Sokka said you’re welcome to join.” And if Katara or any of the others gave him shit? She’d have a word with them.

“…thanks.”

“No problem.” Yugoda finished up with her feet and Toph stretched her toes, glad for the cool numbness. Aaah, so much better than burning.

“Now just stay off your feet for a bit and you can wash that off in about an hour and a half.” Yugoda packed away her jar of salve, bustling back to help Teo again.

“Soooo.” Toph cracked her knuckles and leaned back on her elbows. “How’s life?” It was the least Zuko could do to save her from boredom while she waited.

***

“…That could have gone better,” Sokka said.

Zuko groaned, sprawled in the grass at Sokka’s feet. “You think?” Why had he come to lunch with them again? Oh, right, because he messed up and owed Toph.

“It wasn’t a total mess,” Sokka said, waving a hand like he was brushing the end of the meal away. “I mean we almost finished lunch before you and Katara butted heads. That’s a new record.”

“At least this one wasn’t my fault.” It was clearly Katara who had crossed the line when she brought up Azula and succession, because of course the Daily Prophet would run an article about the whole mess. So everyone knew how much a failure his family saw him.

“No, it was definitely on Katara for this one. But hey, no wands were drawn, no fires happened, no reason for another detention! That’s progress!”

“We got in a shouting match and our ambient magic blew up the bowl of potato salad,” Zuko said, deflating Sokka’s optimistic tone with his inherent pessimism. “I don’t think I’ve heard Toph laugh like that outside of someone getting hexed in the dueling rumbles.”

“…Progress,” Sokka repeated weakly. “We’re making baby steps here.” He flopped down in the grass at Zuko’s side. “I still say you should come again. If you keep showing up Katara will have to get used to you.”

Like she’d gotten used to living in the same dorm for the last five years? Zuko thought skeptically. And tomorrow Azula would apologize and his father would send an owl saying Zuko was the heir after all. He wasn’t holding his breath on that. “It doesn’t matter.” Like it or not he’d show up at least a few more times before the weather got too cold to be outside. “I promised Toph, so I’ll come by sometimes. If I don’t she’d probably blackmail me into coming anyway.”

“…you have a weird way of being friends,” Sokka said.

That was such a problematic sentence Zuko didn’t know where to start, so he just laughed a little in disbelief. Did he even have friends? Was Toph a friend?? His laughter trailed off and he found Sokka watching him with a conflicted expression on his face, his lips quirked in a smile even as his forehead scrunched more like a frown. “What?” Zuko asked.

“Nothing.” Sokka looked away. “Anyway, keep coming to lunch, and the offer to join the NEWTS study group still stands. No Katara there to get in fights with.”

Why did he keep offering? Why did Toph guilt him into coming to lunches? Why did Aang smile and accept him into their group no questions asked when Zuko once sent him to the hospital wing barely breathing? He really didn’t understand any of them.

“I’ll think about it.” It was confusing, but it wasn’t confusing the way Azula was confusing. He was pretty sure that the offers Sokka kept making actually weren’t traps of some sort. He meant them. And that was kind of nice.

“Great!” Sokka grinned and bounced to his feet. He held out a hand to help Zuko up. Zuko studied it before accepting. "So, we’re working on transfiguration right now in the study group. Got any tips? Because it’s not going too well.”

Zuko listened to Sokka talk about the NEWTS study group the whole way back to the castle. Maybe, just maybe, he would go to a meeting sometime.

Because even if he couldn’t understand it, it was kind of nice talking to someone from time to time.


End file.
